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Disowning collections

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 7:44 am
by djross
On the Collections page, one finds the following text:

Once a public collection has more than one contributor, it can no longer be deleted. It can, however, be disowned, making it an orphan. Orphaned collections can be claimed by sending us an email.


This raises the possibility of disowning a collection (ceasing to be its moderator), but does not indicate how to accomplish this goal. Is it by sending an email, like the reverse process of claiming ownership of a previously disowned collection, or is there an automatic way of doing so? I've looked as hard as I can for a possible place where one might find a "renounce ownership" button (such as on the moderation page for a particular collection), but without success.

Thanks.

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 8:34 am
by mpowell
This is a good question. If you attempt to "delete" a public collection to which other users have contributed, you'll be warned that you can only disown the collection, not truly delete it. The dialog box will confirm that you want to continue. If you do, the collection will be removed from your list, but will still exist as an orphaned collection.

This suggests that, for public collections, the link should really say "Disown" instead of "Delete Collection". That would make it clearer... I've made a note, and we'll update it soon.

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 12:09 pm
by djross
Ahh. Thanks, however this seems problematic, because when I disown a collection, I can't tell if another user has contributed to the collection, and so can't tell if I am about to delete the collection without wanting to. This just led me to delete the collection Cannes 2017 Official Selection, for example, when all I wanted to do was disown it. This means that before disowning a collection, I have to go to the moderation page and check who has contributed, if I want to avoid this problem, which seems unnecessarily complicated. It also means that it is currently impossible to disown public collections that have only one contributor. I can understand the idea that you may want to discourage users from starting public collections that are only of interest to them but don't wish to moderate, but I tend to think that the issue is more complex. For instance, people may be interested in the Cannes 2017 Official Selection, but can't be bothered starting the collection themselves or even contributing to it. But if one user decides to take that responsibility and be the one who starts those collections, eventually they end up with a massive list of collections that become difficult to scroll through. An indicator of whether an action will in fact delete the collection seems necessary, and the option to disown a public collection with only one contributor would also be beneficial.

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:06 pm
by 90sCoffee
Also, how do you make one of your public collections private?

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:17 pm
by paulofilmo
what of hypothetical private collections with lots of stars? are they deleted or disowned?

i'm not entirely sober—or invested in this—but it sounds like things can be simplified/improved :D

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:53 am
by mpowell
From now on, the link will clearly say "Delete" or "Disown" Collection. Again, the rule is, you can delete any collection you've created, unless it's a public collection to which other users have contributed.

Hopefully this change removes the confusion as to what's going to happen when you click the link.

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 12:05 pm
by djross
That's great. Thanks for making this change so quickly. And so, the other rule is: you cannot disown a collection until another user has contributed to it.

Re: Disowning collections

Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 8:28 am
by mpowell
djross wrote:That's great. Thanks for making this change so quickly. And so, the other rule is: you cannot disown a collection until another user has contributed to it.


Yes, that's right. If you don't want it, and nobody has contributed to it, Criticker will delete it entirely.